Earth Star(78)

‘If that lab has any clues to lost technology, the bounty payments could be big,’ said Amalie. ‘It’ll take ages to investigate properly, and the money would be shared around a lot. The research teams took huge risks, and the Dig Site Federation gets a share of big payments to help with dome and equipment costs, but we should still get …’

‘I don’t want it,’ said Krath. ‘When I went through that evac portal, I saw the state Jarra was in and …’

I hit him myself this time. ‘Playdon shouldn’t have let you see …’ I broke off. ‘No, that’s nardle of me. He had to get everyone out of the danger zone, and emergency evac portals are made the cheap way. No controls, they’re just set to transmit to a specific receiving portal in the nearest major casualty unit. Playdon had no way to recalibrate the portal, so …’

‘He told us to crawl through and keep moving straight ahead and out of the door,’ said Amalie, ‘but of course Krath had to stop and be nosy in the casualty area.’

Krath rubbed his head. ‘I wanted to check Jarra and Fian were all right, but …’

I grabbed his shoulders and shook him. ‘Krath, you just made a casual remark. What happened to me and to Fian wasn’t your fault. Playdon, and you, and Dalmora, and Amalie were all heroes. You took a huge risk and you saved our lives!’

Krath blushed. ‘You really think I’m a hero.’

I nodded, let go of his shoulders, and stepped back.

‘Don’t let it go to your head though,’ said Fian. ‘You’re still a nardle.’

Krath grinned at him. ‘But a heroic nardle!’

Playdon came over, carrying a large box. ‘Jarra, Fian, we’ll have to allow at least three days before either of you try getting into an impact suit, so you’ll have to stay in the dome until then. I made vids of the lectures you missed, so you can spend your mornings catching up with those while the rest of us get back to work on the dig site.’ He gave us one of his evil smiles. ‘Being in a tank is no excuse for missing my lectures.’

Fian laughed. ‘I guessed you’d have made vids, sir. Thank you.’

‘Dig Site Command had your suit completely serviced and reconditioned, Jarra.’ Playdon handed me the box. ‘You’ll find it’s as good as new.’

‘That’s very kind of them,’ I said, trying to control the shake in my voice. ‘I’ll just put it away.’

I took the box, carried it off into the privacy of the room I shared with Fian, and closed the door behind me. I opened the lid and looked at the impact suit that the Cassandra 2 team had given me. I’d been delighted with their gift, I’d loved it, and now it made me sick to even see the thing. The magnetic field had turned it from friend to foe. It had tortured and nearly killed me. I could never bear to wear it, or any other impact suit, ever again.

I put the lid back on the box, shoved it out of the way, and sat on the bed. I’d had no idea I’d react like this, and it took a few minutes to realize the implications. I had the key spot in my class, tag leader for dig team 1, but I couldn’t do my job without an impact suit. There were endless hazards on a dig site. Falling rocks, abandoned chemicals, decaying power cells that could explode. Never mind the hazards, I couldn’t even fire a tag at a block of Eden glowplas without a suit, because a ricochet could seriously injure or even kill me.

The grim facts started to sink in. I couldn’t even set foot in a ruined city without an impact suit. My career as an archaeologist was over and I’d have to aim at being a theoretical historian, like the members of team 5 who did the minimum they could on the dig site just to …

Panic hit me. No, I couldn’t become a theoretical historian either. If I couldn’t do the practical work on the dig site, I’d have to drop out of this course, and successfully completing your Pre-history Foundation course was a prerequisite for entry to a full history degree. It was a strict rule. I’d smugly laughed about how it forced norm history students to spend a year on ape planet Earth, but now that rule was going to destroy my future.

I’d have to leave the course, and what would that mean for me and Fian? He’d offer to come with me, because he was a zan person, but I couldn’t let him. Fian loved history as much as I did. Twoing with me demanded too many sacrifices already, keeping him chained to Earth, and causing trouble between him and his parents. I couldn’t selfishly make him give up his history studies and his career as well.

Being afraid of an impact suit seemed such a small thing, but it could systematically wreck my life. I wasn’t going to let that happen. I had three days before I needed to wear an impact suit again. Three days to force myself past my fear and into the suit that had tried to murder me. I could do that. I had to do that. It was the only way.